The country is only 27 days away from tumbling over the fiscal cliff. Yet, neither side is budging to come closer to a deal. CNN Contributor John Avlon says that most politicians don't want to go over the cliff, but some partisans might derail the discussions on both sides. In a recently published CNN opinion piece, Avlons calls members of Congress the "Cliff-Deniers". He writes:

There is danger ahead—a growing chorus of ideological activists on both sides who insist there is no reason to fear going over the fiscal cliff, if the cliff exists at all. Call them The Cliff-Deniers. Listening to all-or-nothing advocates got us into this mess in the first place, leading directly to the loss of America's AAA credit rating. Listening to them again would be the definition of insanity.

The Author of "Deadline Artists – Scandals, Tragedies & Triumphs: America's Greatest Newspaper Columns", Avlon comes to the studio with his take on the stalemate in Washington.

"Right now, we are in the stage of public positional bargaining, and both sides making opening bids that the other side immediately dismisses as not serious, but of course this is serious," Avlon says. "This is a self inflicted crisis. And Washington is playing chicken with the fiscal cliff."

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OneHuman

If we want to truly cut the deficit in half,taxes would have to be raised on everyone but even more on the wealthy and cut out all the loop holes and quit paying this dicators of other countries billions of dollars for nothing.Our government should have to pay back the IOU's in social security and social security and medicaid wasn't made for the wealthiest people to draw so I would cut the millionaires off of social security and medicaid.The money that is being spent on armed forces could be cut back on also,the general said they didnt anything right now anyways so just put the money back untill they do need it.These wealthy U.S. citizens that are starting business in other countries should have to pay almost double the taxes that business owners with businesses here in the U.S. pay.This so called war on drugs has been called a big failure and has wasted billions of dollars,and then locking up non violent offenders and more than likely making them become violent when they do get released and then they can't get a job hardly because they have been labled a felon and that is costing the taxpayers a lot of money.Most of all we have to put a stop to the corruption that goes on in all of the offices and the ones that want to take more vacations than work need to be replaced.

The outrage exhibited by the Republican Party at raising tax rates for the very rich seems odd considering the history of tax rates. Since 1913, the year the federal income tax was established, the income tax rates were routinely raised in times of war. In 1917, at the inception of WWI, the tax rates were raised from a historically low rate of 7% to 67% in order to pay for the war. In 1940, faced with WWII, rates were raised from 63% to 79%. In 1950, during the Korean conflict, tax rates were in excess of 90%. During to the Tax Reform Act of 1964, tax rates hovered in the 70s during the Vietnam conflict; however, during Reagan’s presidency, tax rates were slashed to 28%. Bush had to raise the rates to 31% to fund the Gulf War—which lost the 1992 election for him. Clinton then raised the rates to 39.6% to balance the budget and give our country a comfortable surplus. Bush II was the first president in history to lower tax rates while fighting two separate wars. Raising tax rates—which proved to be the most successful way to finance the country since 1913–would be an expedient measure of lowering the deficit given the dire straits our country finds itself in.

I think a great spending cut are the salaries of our US senate. Most of them are against the tax increase since they make more than $250,000 a year. They make more than our teachers and have more vacation time than most Americans.so senate house speaker Boehner instead of disrespecting our president take $100,000 salary decrease!! I'm sick of my taxes paying your family's holiday vacation and large homes.

This is really starting to look like a scene straight out of a kindergarten school class. Has anyone thought about the fact that if this "fiscal cliff" situation does not get resolved that it may start becoming a "physical cliff"? People are getting sick and tired of not being able to feed there kids. When things like that start happening in a society then that society starts to "break down". Get it done "Pretty Boys & Girls" in Washington or else!

Someone needs to remind the bag of wind, John Boehner that is NOT the president of the U.S. His posturing and pontificating are insulting to the American public. I hope the voters in his state start the new year with an move towards recalling him from Congress. Perhaps if he had a real job instead of living off the public dole the dose of reality would convince him to behave in a responsible fashion.

Would Mr. Avlon PLEASE show the tax rates over the history of the US? I found a good tax table on the National Taxpayers Union website and it's quite eloquent in it's numerical way. It clearly shows the good sense applied to tax rate structuring through the nation's worst times of need, up until the last decade. Amazing how the numbers reflect the faulty logic of the Bush administration.

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